Rory Sutherland's Recent LinkedIn Posts

One of the more interesting things about human behaviour is that the forces shaping our decisions are often the ones we’re least likely to acknowledge. Take herd effects. Social contagion is everywhere, quietly influencing what we buy, what we believe, and what we feel comfortable doing. Yet we almost never credit it. Instead, we construct neat, rational explanations after the fact. “I bought an electric car because of X.” Maybe. But more often than not, the real reason is simpler: you saw people you trust do it first. Their behaviour made the decision feel safe. If you ignore that force, it’s a bit like trying to design a rocket using perfect data, while forgetting gravity exists. Closely linked to this is something we’ve taken for granted for a long time: trust. For a few decades, we lived in an unusually high-trust environment. People were broadly satisfied with their choices, regret was relatively low, and confidence in decision-making was high. That shaped how markets behaved, and how marketing worked. But that context is changing. When it becomes easier and cheaper to mislead, people don’t become more rational, they become more cautious. And in those conditions, reassurance starts to matter more than persuasion. Not just being seen. Not just being different. But making people feel confident they won’t regret choosing you. Which leads to a useful distinction: The goal isn’t merely to be noticeable. It’s to be talkable. Because it’s talkability that drives social transmission. And it’s social transmission that ultimately drives behaviour. If this resonates with you, the upcoming intake of MAD//Masters kicks off on the 27th of April. It’s the last intake before prices rise, so secure your spot now and learn how to make ideas genuinely talkable, not just noticeable. Register here - https://lnkd.in/e3quGBT6 MAD//FEST Sam Benton Ian Houghton Dan Brain Bindi Houghton Florence Ralston Leonard Kelly Matt Ridout Hugo Gomes

For some time now, I've held the belief that marketing has become a little too conformist. When every marketer ends up using the same metrics, the same dashboards, the same models and frameworks, something bad happens - everybody starts to see the problem in the same way, and when everyone sees the problem in the same way, you tend to get the same answers every time. One of the principles I've always liked comes from Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett: the notion that, to make good decisions, you need a suitcase full of different mental models - not one model, or one framework, but a whole suitcase of them. Unfortunately, we seem to have developed the habit of packing light.   It's a huge pleasure therefore to introduce you to a brilliant concatenation of dissenters with today's launch of Illuminari. Illuminari means 'to bring into the light' in Latin, and this was brought into the light by co-founders Kerry Collinge and Anna Cairns. Alongside Kerry and Anna, I am thrilled to be joining brilliant minds including Karen Nelson-Field PhD, Jon Evans, Orlando Wood, Margaret Heffernan, Emma de la Fosse, Nishma Patel Robb 🪩⚡️, Les Binet, Peter Field, Adam Morgan, Tom Goodwin, Joanna Howes, Lauren Spearman, Elfried Samba, Emma Harris, Jim Olson, Mark Denton, Daryl Fielding, and Richard Shotton. We're all united by a single suspicion: marketing has become a bit too tidy, a bit too orthodox, and a bit too certain of its own metrics. Illuminari is, in essence, a slightly mischievous gathering of dissenters. People who think marketing occasionally benefits from the counterintuitive, the contrarian, and the awkward question that everyone else is slightly afraid to ask. We aim to diagnose and solve the problems that others have failed to fix. Please connect with Anna Cairns if you think we can help you.  | #DelightfulDisobedience

I was absurdly delighted to sit down this week with my self-appointed ‘client spirit animal’, Ellie Norman , alongside the ever-brilliant Elfried Samba Samba on the Bottleneck Podcast Podcast. This episode unpacks what it really means to build fame, be easy to find, and be hard to leave — why she likes to hire people who are comfortable with uncertainty — and why common sense remains the rarest skill in any marketing department. Links in comments👇 Sassy+ Anna Cairns Ogilvy UK

I thoroughly enjoyed MAD//North, so I thought I’d share a highlight snippet from my session on stage with Tom Ridges 🐄 and Sam Benton. One of the things that fascinates me about human behaviour is that any social species gains a huge advantage when individuals learn from each other rather than purely from personal experience. Copying other people isn’t irrational, quite the opposite. In evolutionary terms it’s completely sensible. The interesting part is that this influence is largely unconscious. It acts a bit like an invisible force shaping behaviour. This has huge implications for marketing. There’s a prevailing assumption today that because you can sell everywhere, you therefore should sell everywhere. But in doing so we often miss the extraordinary potency of local effects and social contagion. Tom made a brilliant point that absolutely sold me on this idea: “I’d rather sell five solar panels to five people who live on the same street than 15 solar panels to people who live 10 miles apart.” Why? Because the value of a customer isn’t purely individual, it’s networked. This is where many metrics fall short. Take CAC, for example. If you focus purely on the cost of acquiring an individual customer, you ignore the hidden benefit of the connected network behind them. You might be optimising for isolated customers with very little potential to trigger further growth. Long-term growth tends to come from clusters and networks, not just from individually optimised transactions. And in an age of abundant AI-generated “slop”, I suspect something else may happen: we may revert slightly to a more 19th-century pattern of trust, gaining much of our information from people close to us rather than distant sources. Sometimes marketers misunderstand markets because they understand the urge to stand out, but underestimate the human urge to fit in. Which is why thinking more locally can be surprisingly powerful. In a local network you have a far higher chance of repetition and visibility, and repetition is exactly what allows ideas, behaviours and products to spread. For context, this discussion was actually a condensed version of just one of the new 12 modules on the MAD//Masters course. If you enjoy these kinds of conversations and behavioural rabbit holes, you’ll love the course. The next intake kicks off on April 27th, so secure your place now - https://lnkd.in/e3quGBT6 MAD//FEST Sam Benton Ian Houghton Dan Brain Bindi Houghton Tom Ridges 🐄Hugo Gomes Leonard Kelly Florence Ralston

Amsterdam - are you ready to learn some behavioural science magic? It's been a while since I've hopped on a Eurostar train (still no models or free booze to make the trip feel quicker, sadly) to take in the sights of Amsterdam. I've long admired Amsterdam for defying conventional logic and creative problem solving (any place that has the foresight to insert a picture of a fly into a urinal to stop men pissing all over the seat is clearly doing something right in my book). Here's the deal - MAD//Masters has teamed up with Tony's Chocolonely to bring the highlights of the course to the low countries at Tony's Chocolonely HQ on 23 March. I’ll be sharing my thoughts on how brands can leverage behavioural science and remain resilient alongside my friends Richard Shotton Sadira E. Furlow and Tom Ridges 🐄. And yes, there will be plenty of chocolate! Want to join us? There's a few FREE places available for brands and agencies. You can request a ticket here -  https://lnkd.in/ecB6H-cU MAD//FEST Sam Benton Ian Houghton Dan Brain Bindi Houghton Leonard Kelly Florence Ralston

Wondering what the future of work looks like? I’ll be sharing my take on how the world of work is changing and why leadership through influence should always trump leadership through control at MHR’s World of Work 2026 this September. It’s set to be a day dedicated to exploring the science behind better leadership, stronger performance and making work flow. Find out more and get tickets here: https://lnkd.in/eta_DxcJ https://lnkd.in/eta_DxcJ

Can’t wait, see you there! Sign up here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ezZAp2Zi Anna Cairns The Illuminari

Recorded at Aerospace Bristol on Concorde's 50th anniversary, Concorde: The Future We Flew Away From on is now available to listen on BBC Archive on 4. Thank you to everyone who took part from our crew including our Chair of Trustees, Sir Ian Gray. You can listen now 🎧: https://lnkd.in/ekPHs5Up

Can’t wait Dan Pope!

https://lnkd.in/eW2mQPHV